Digging Post Holes ... Pile High and Deep

pka

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Jan 29, 2005
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2x + 9x -5, box method won't work.
I have no idea what the box method is. But whatever it is, it is useless in factoring.
Having won a citywide factoring contest years ago, I can tell you how to learn factoring.
My algebra teacher then gave me a sheet of four hundred problems.
They all looked like \(\displaystyle (7x-4)(2x+5)\). When I objected saying "Mrs. L, these are multiplications not facting".
She said to me "Plato just do them and talk to me Monday".
Monday: She asked me if I had done them all. Yes mam. Then here factor \(\displaystyle 2x^2+9x-5\).
I took one look at it and saw that \(\displaystyle 2\cdot 5=10~\&~10-1=9\) so I knew how to factor it.
That one simple lesson took me all the way through a PhD program.
 
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I have no idea what the box method is. But whatever it is, it is useless in factoring.


If you have no idea what that is, then you cannot state that it is useless in factoring!


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pka said:
Having won a citywide factoring contest years ago, I can tell you how to learn factoring.
My algebra teacher then gave me a sheet of four hundred problems.
They all looked like \(\displaystyle (7x-4)(2x+5)\). When I objected saying "Mrs. L, these are multiplications not facting [sic]".
She said to me "Plato just do them and talk to me Monday".
Monday: She asked me if I had done them all. Yes mam[sic. Then here factor \(\displaystyle 2x^2+9x-5\).
I took one look at it and saw that \(\displaystyle 2\cdot 5=10~\&~10-1=9\) so I knew how to factor it.
That one simple lesson took me all the way through a PhD program.

There may be intertwined bragging and humblebragging in the above.
 
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